ARMONK, N.Y., Oct. 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals Inc., three facilities with more than 900 acute care beds and part of Jefferson Health in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is working with IBM (NYSE: IBM) to launch cognitive hospital rooms powered by IBM Watson Internet of Things (IoT) designed to enhance the patient experience and help bring deeper levels of personalized, agile and responsive care to its patients. Jefferson is currently planning to deploy speakers in some hospital rooms, providing patients in those rooms with access to basic information, as well as more control over their surroundings to help make their stay more comfortable.

According to The Physician's Foundation, 81 percent of physicians describe themselves as either over-extended or at full capacity, while only 19 percent indicate they have time to see more patients. Moreover, physicians spend 20 percent of their time on non-clinical paperwork. Now, with the ability to interact with in-room speakers that are connected to the IBM Watson IoT Platform, patients can take control over their hospital stay and the overall experience -- operating lights, window blinds, asking questions about hospital facilities or even getting background information on their physician.

"Being in a hospital can often be a hectic, anxiety-ridden, or even intimidating experience for patients and their loved ones. If we can minimize that discomfort, even a little, we are doing a lot to increase the well-being and care of our patients," said Neil Gomes, Vice President for Technology Innovation and Consumer Experience at Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health. "Thanks to our visionary President and CEO, Dr. Stephen Klasko, we are able to invest in new innovations like the Watson IoT-powered speakers to give our patients the ability to interact in natural language to get basic, but important, information about their hospital visit without having to buzz in for a nurse."

The in-room speakers will be connected to the IBM Watson IoT Platform that taps IBM Watson cognitive computing and natural language capabilities, as well as provides the ability to easily access hospital data that is relevant and important for patients and the types of questions they typically may have about their hospital stay.

For example, patients can request information (i.e.: "When can my brother visit me on Tuesday?" or "Tell me about my doctor"), request specific actions (i.e.: "Play waterfall music," or "Make the room warmer or cooler"), trigger actions (i.e.: "Remind me to get up and walk every four hours"), and have an interactive dialogue with the speaker (i.e.: "Conduct a survey and record the responses for my nurse"), which can help make a patient's hospital stay more comfortable, relaxed and enjoyable.

Jefferson, through its academic and clinical entities of Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, is reimagining health care for the greater Philadelphia region and southern New Jersey. Since its mergers with Abington Health and Aria Health, Jefferson now has 23,000 people dedicated to providing the highest-quality, compassionate clinical care for patients, educating the health professionals of tomorrow, and discovering new treatments and therapies to define the future of care. With a university and hospital that date to 1824, today Jefferson is comprised of six colleges, nine hospitals, 32 outpatient and urgent care locations, and a multitude of physician practices throughout the region, serving more than 96,000 inpatients, 363,000 emergency patients and 1.9 million outpatient visits annually.